Ratchet's Bucket List
by Flareup4Ratchet
Summary: Ratchet creates a list. He wants to accomplish everything on the list. Will he do it?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: You know how most people have a list of things to accomplish before they 'pass on' from this life? Well, I thought it would be interesting if Ratchet had such a list. It's not as long, but I figured it would make some interesting one-shot chapters. These chapters are a mix of G1 and Transformers Prime series, with Red Alert (fem) from Animated and introducing the Maximals ~ briefly. This is my first attempt at a fic on my own.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro. I'm just having fun with them.

It had been one of those days for Ratchet and he wished they didn't happen so often. Working at the City was fine, but he found himself annoyed quite often with Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Mudflap and Skids. The two sets of twins always seemed to be getting in trouble and ending up in the medical bay, which was where he was at that moment. He was going over the computer files, checking up on things in general and making a few lists of things to get done and marking off other things on other lists as he went through notes as well as files.

One thing Ratchet wanted to do was accomplish a few things before his spark extinguished. As he was typing, he heard footsteps walking into the medical bay. He glanced up from the computer and saw his beautiful white and red mate Red Alert walk into the room. She sat down at a microscope to look at a box of slides she had carried in from a store room off of the medical bay. His light blue optics lit up with all the love he had for her. He smiled and just stared at her.

Red Alert felt optics on her and turned to see her mate's light blue optics staring at her. Her pale blue optics sparkled as she looked at him. "What are you doing, my dear Medic?" she asked in a smooth voice. She only used the tone she had when she was around him.

Ratchet chuckled lightly and said, "I'm just going through a few files and typing up a list of things I want to accomplish. Do you remember the movie we watched a few weeks ago about the two human males who had a list of things to do before they passed on?"

Red Alert thought for a moment and then nodded her helm. "Yes I do. Is that what you're doing? Ratch, don't you know that we live long lives?"

Ratchet nodded. "I know, but there are still things I've always wanted to do. I'm always bothered by idiots who like to get injured for no reason."

Red Alert giggled and turned back to do her work.

Ratchet looked back at the computer screen and started to type up his list.

Ratchet looked up at the sound of footsteps and two bots complaining. He knew right away who they were.

Red Alert ignored the complaints as she continued to work.

Just then a beautiful blue femme walked into the medical bay. She was practically dragging a red mech behind her.

"Chromia, stop pullin', will yah?" he protested.

"Ironhide, you're not feeling well," she told him, "You're hot and I don't mean in that way. You're burning up a lot." She looked at the white mech medic. "Ratchet, will you please check over this stubborn, thick-headed mech brat of mine?"

Ratchet cycled air, saved what he was doing before he was interrupted and minimized the document. He stood up and gathered what he needed. "Get up on the medical berth, Ironhide," he instructed.

Ironhide grumbled and did what he was told to do.

Chromia put her servos on her hips while she watched Ratchet check over Ironhide.

Ratchet gave Ironhide a check over and took his temperature. It was through the roof. Ratchet shook his helm. "You have an Earth virus. I don't know how you managed to catch the flu, but you did. I didn't think it would be possible to catch a human illness."

Red Alert giggled at that from Ratchet. "Ratchy, we're biological beings, if metal based, so there's a good chance that he got a mutated form."

Ratchet sighed. "Red, I know that, but I'm surprised by the fact that it's happening. Help me here by checking the computers." He shot her a smirk and continued to work on Ironhide. "Chromia, he'll be here for the next few days, so do you want to stay or go back to your shared quarters?"

"I'll stay with the brat. That way he doesn't complain to you all the time." Chromia grinned at that, knowing that both medics were silently laughing.

Red Alert moved Ironhide and Chromia into a private room off of the medical bay to stay there for the next few days. Then she went back over to her work station.

Ratchet went back to the computer and continued working on his list. "One of these days Red, I'm going to offline them all before they offline me," he told her.

She gave a slight giggle and gave him a look. "I hope I'm not one of them," she teased him.

"Never..." he replied with a smile, "I wouldn't offline my mate."

"Good mech," she replied with a smirk.

Red went back to looking at her samples.

Ratchet brought up his list again and typed a few more items on his list.

Red Alert had moved from her work station while Ratchet had been busy typing. She had to get something from a drawer on the other side of the medical bay.

Ratchet had just added a few more things to his list, when he heard voices telling someone to watch where they were going. He watched the door waiting for the next interruption.

Cheetor raced past the others in the corridors, heading for the medical bay as fast as his cheetah body could carry him. The wails of a newborn echoed behind him as he flipped around a corner and shot into the bay, practically colliding with a moving Red Alert. He didn't have to speak; the little sliver creature in his mouth opened her mouth and WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAILED in a demand for food.

"What in the world?" Red Alert gasped in startlement and nearly dropped the datapad she was carrying, staring at the two.

"Where did you find that?" Ratchet asked as he scrambled from the computer to help in this emergency.

Cheetor set the sparkling down, still breathing hard but managed to answer. "Airazor and Tigatron."

"Great Primus!" both gasped even as Red went to the medical berth as Ratchet picked up the maximal sparkling.

"Where are Airazor and Tigatron?" Ratchet asked, grimly as he worked.

"They're coming with the other two." Cheetor said as he transformed into robot mode as the kitten wailed again.

"Shh, little one," Ratchet said to her, slipping her an energon feeding tube as he set the computer to run a scan on the little one. She attacked the feed tube eagerly then after a moment, threw up what she just ate with another wail/cough.

"That's not good," Red replied with a frown.

"She and her sisters have been doing that since last night, Red Alert," Cheetor replied.

"She's got a virus," Ratchet said grimly as he set to work on seeing to her.

Red shook her head even as the two parents entered, clearly having come as fast at they could, with two more wailing sparklings. She had learned that the Maximals took after their animal forms when it came to having sparklings so tigers and birds often had more than one baby. She saw to the two newcomers, who were wailing as well while Ratchet saw to the first one, asking questions of the worried adults. Hopefully they would have caught this quick enough so there was no threat to the young ones' lives.

Hours later, with the small family in one of the medical rooms for the next few days, the two medics got back to work on what they had been doing prior while Cheetor crashed on a medical berth, worn out from helping with the babies. That amused Ratchet and Red though they didn't say so aloud. Cheetor was one of the few teenagers still among the living of their people.

Ratchet was typing more things up on his little project. So far he had two interruptions and even though he had to do his job, he was still irritated that he couldn't complete the task he was trying to accomplish.

"How many times do I have to warn you to stay out of the way when we're all on the demolitions field, Mirage?" Flareup's voice could be heard long before she and Mirage limped into the medical bay, followed by a wounded Tracks and Bumblebee.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you guys didn't sound the alarm! I was playing tag with Bee and Tracks when you guys hit the button," Mirage snapped back, cradling an arm.

"You're one to talk!" Tracks snapped at them both. "I just got a new paint job done. Now look at me!" He'd taken the worst of the blast, sad to say.

Bumblebee rolled his optics and didn't say a word as he helped Tracks into the room, looking around for one of the medics.

Red Alert looked up from her task and couldn't believe her optics. All four of them had walked or limped into the medical bay with injuries. She slipped off her stool and headed over to pick up the tools necessary to repair the four injured bots.

Ratchet vented a very huge sigh, saved what he was doing, got up and headed over to the four injured bots to assist Red Alert. He was going to allow her to handle the majority of this one.

Red Alert decided that the best one to start with was Tracks as he was the one who would never be quiet about his ruined paint job. "Bee, please help Tracks up on the berth," Red Alert instructed.

Bee did so and then backed up a bit to allow Red Alert to work.

Red Alert worked on repairing him.

Ratchet decided to take care of Mirage's arm, as Flareup and Bee weren't injured that badly.

Flareup glared at Tracks and said, "Hey Pretty Boy. You don't play tag on a demolitions field. Even Optimus would tell you that it was idiotic of you to do so."

Red Alert listened and said, "Flareup's right, BUT she still could have checked again to make sure that no one was near or even on the field."

After awhile, all four bots that had entered the medical bay were patched up and released. They were told to come back for a check up in a few days to make sure they were healing properly. The four bots obliged, thanked both medics and left the medical bay still arguing about the incident.

Both Red Alert and Ratchet sighed as they cleaned up the tools they had used and the area where the four bots had leaked energon. Once again, they both went back to what they had been trying to accomplish that day.

Finally the list was all typed up and saved, even after the three interruptions he had while typing it. He put the document away, stood up and headed over to his mate. He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

Red Alert smiled and snuggled into it, leaning back against him. "What's this for?" she asked.

Ratchet smiled and said, "I just wanted you to know I love you."

Red Alert giggled. "I already knew that, but I love hearing it. I love you too."

Ratchet chuckled and said, "Let's go take a break."

Red Alert smiled, put her research away, slipped off her stool, held Ratchet's arm and they walked out of the medical bay together.

_Next: Our Lambo Twins tick off a certain medic and he does something unexpected._

_Please review.. All Reviews are welcome. Thanks. _


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Not all chapters will have a note from me. In the chapters that follow, when you see City - this is referring to Autobot City. If it looks like this - city - that means the city outside of Autobot City. Also, this chapter was planned to be up at Christmas time, but had to be pushed back when I had to create a chapter to start this fic.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro. I'm just having fun with them.

It was a bright, sunny day at the City and so far it was a calm day for those who were currently assigned there. Some were out in pairs on patrol of the surrounding area, including at the closest human cities. Others were working at normal jobs in the city itself and others were hanging out among their friends and co-workers.

In one area of the City, Ratchet was finishing up a mild research case while waiting for other reports and information to come in to the medical bay where he and others of the Medical field worked. He was also making sure that the repairs he had done a little while ago on Sideswipe was sealing properly with their natural regenerative abilities.

He hadn't yet asked what Sideswipe had done to get such an injury, a long nasty gash, in his side, which was another reason for his mild research right now on the computers while Sideswipe rested on the medical berth nearby. He was not pleased, but then again, when was he ever truly pleased? It was something Red Alert teased him about at times.

Red Alert had gone out in the field for a two-week training session with Ironhide, Smokescreen, Bumblebee, Powerglide, and Brawn. Silverbolt, Rynox and Cheetor of the Maximals also went along.

"How did you manage to do this, Sideswipe?" Ratchet asked grumpily.

"I told you how it happened, Doc," Sideswipe said, "Sunny and I were just relaxing when all of a sudden this big explosion happened. I think Flareup has been setting up bombs again outside the City."

Ratchet asked, "Why would she do that?"

The red and black mech shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't you ask her?"

Ratchet finished up the patch job. "Maybe I will. Now get out of here."

Sideswipe left.

About ten minutes later, Sunstreaker entered the Medical Bay with the same injury his twin brother had come in with.

Ratchet turned around and looked over at the door. "How did that happen, Sunstreaker?"

The yellow mech told Ratchet the same thing that his twin brother had said.

Ratchet patched him up, but didn't say anything about the story that Sideswipe told him. They sounded consistant, but it didn't sound like something Flareup would do. He released him and decided to go find the femme in question.

The red, orange, and purple femme had been sitting just outside the City walls the whole time reading a book on a datapad. The Lambo twins had to have passed her to come inside the City.

The white mech looked at Flareup. "Hello Flareup," he said.

Flareup looked up at him and replied in her southern accent, "Hello Ratchet."

"I have a question I would like to ask you."

She nodded and waited.

"Did you set up bombs outside the City again only to have Sides and Sunny get blown up by them?"

She shook her helm. "I would never set up anything like that to detonate on my fellow Autobots. Why would you ask such a thing?"

The white medic sat down next to her and told her what he had been told by the mechs in question.

Flareup gave a giggle. "You actually believe that? Do you really know what those two were doing? They weren't relaxing like they said."

Ratchet's bright blue optics flashed angrily. "What were they doing?"

"They were trying to make their own bombs and blew themselves up. I'm a Demolitions expert. I can make bombs very easily, but I would only make them and throw them at the enemy."

Ratchet gave her a kind smile and thanked her for the insight. He headed back inside and to his Medical Bay.

~**Two Weeks Later**~

Ratchet was in his Medical Bay when Sideswipe again came in with another wound similar to what he had two weeks prior. Ratchet told him to sit on the Medical Berth and he would be with him shortly.

Sunstreaker strolled in five minutes later, just like before.

Ratchet vented a sigh, stood up, headed over to get his trusty torch. He headed over to the Medical Bay door, closed it and locked it. He turned to face them.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were very worried. Ratchet had that crazy look in his optics.

Ratchet moved closer to them, turned on his torch and went right to work.

Ten minutes later the door was unlocked and open. Ratchet was sitting at his table again with a big grin on his face repairing something Blaster had asked him to fix.

Elita and the femmes all walked past the Medical Bay, but they had to do a double-take at what they saw. They all cracked up with laughter that rang out through the whole City. Then they continued heading where they were going.

Prowl wanted to see what was going on that had made the femmes laugh so hard. He looked inside the Medical Bay and laughed himself. He looked over at Ratchet. "What did these two aft-heads do to deserve this?"

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were all decorated and sitting in an awkward position on two separate medical berths. They looked like Christmas presents with pretty pink bows on top of their helms.

Ratchet looked up. "They lied to me on how they got injured. I found out the truth and when they came in with the same wounds, I not only patched up their wounds, but I welded their afts to the medical berths."

Prowl chuckled. "Fair enough." He walked away and headed towards the monitors to check on the mechs who were watching the security cameras of the premises.

Sideswipe groaned in pain. "It just goes to show - Never lie to a Medic, because the consequences end up a pain-in-the-aft."

Sunstreaker groaned as well. "I hear that!"

Ratchet stood up from his table, walked over to his computer and sat down. He brought up the document he typed up about things he wanted to accomplish.

He smirked when he saw the first item on the list: 1. Weld Sideswipe's and Sunstreaker's afts to medical berths. After that item he typed completed.

Red Alert came back when the training session was complete. She was exhausted and had missed her mate terribly. At least she had felt him in her spark, so she knew that he missed her as well. She walked into the medical bay and laughed at the sight she was greeted with.

Ratchet heard his mate's laughter. He got up from his computer, walked over to her, wrapped his arms around her waist. "Merry Christmas, my dear."

_Next: Our favorite medic has a talk with Ironhide_

**A/N: I wanted this one up before or by Christmas 2011, but it didn't work out that way... Thank you to Victoria-Blackheart for telling me that I should do something for Christmas... LOL**

_Please review... All reviews welcome... Thanks _


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro. I'm just having fun with them.

Ratchet was getting a little tired of Ironhide shooting his guns everywhere. Ironhide may have been a great soldier, but he was careless at times too. He would get too carried away. Ratchet had warned the old soldier many times that if he was careless with his guns again, they would be confiscated for a week.

Yes, Ratchet was a medic, but he was also concerned for the safety of the others in the City. Even if they came in injured, he would repair them, but he was really getting tired of hearing that Ironhide was the main reason of their injuries.

When it happened again, it was the straw that broke the camels back. He wondered if Ironhide was losing sight in his optics to be so careless. He commed Ironhide privately and told him to come to the medical bay for a check up.

Ironhide trudged slowly into the medical bay. He didn't want a check up. He wasn't scheduled for one, so why did Ratchet call him in for a check up? He didn't know.

"Sit down on the medical berth, Ironhide," Ratchet replied from his office. He was pulling up Ironhide's medical file on a datapad. As he was looking it over, he left his office and headed over to get his medical tools.

The red mech complied with Ratchet's instructions and sat down.

Ratchet walked over and started looking him over. He checked Ironhide's internal systems and then finally his optics. Ironhide's optics were fine. Ratchet looked at Ironhide. "Everything checks out fine."

"I know," Ironhide replied, "Why did ya wanna see meh then?"

"I want to know why you've been so dangerous with your weapons lately," Ratchet replied, "Two months ago you almost hit me, last month you hit Optimus in the leg, three days ago you hit Flareup in her right arm and just today you almost hit Red Alert! Is something bothering you?"

"No," he replied sheepishly, "They were all accidents. I didn't mean it."

"I told you before Ironhide, that if anyone else comes close to being injured I was going to confiscate your guns for one Earth week," the white mech replied, "Hand over any that you have on you."

Ironhide sighed a heavy sigh and went to hand the one he had near him. However it was pointed directly at Ratchet.

Ratchet's optics went wide. "DON'T POINT THAT AT ME!" he shrieked, taking the weapon.

"Sorry..." he replied sadly.

Finally Ratchet had possession of all the weapons that Ironhide had on him. "You may leave now," he told him.

Ironhide trudged out of the medical bay and headed back to the quarters he shared with Chromia.

Just then Flareup was walking past the medical bay with Firestar and Inferno, when Ratchet called to her.

"Flare, I need to talk to you...It's important..."

Flareup told Firestar and Inferno that she would meet them in the rec room, then entered the medical bay.

"Yes Ratchet?"

"Ironhide isn't allowed to use any weapon for one Earth week. Is there a way you can make sure he doesn't touch any weapon? I don't even want to see him at the firing range."

Flareup was a little confused, but she nodded. "I'll do my best," she replied.

"Thank you."

Flareup ran out of the rec room to join Firestar and Inferno.

~**A Week Later**~

Ratchet had called Ironhide back into the medical bay.

The old red mech wanted to know what he had done now.

"Here are your weapons back," Ratchet replied as he handed them over one-by-one. "If you ever do it again, accident or not, I will let Prime handle it. Understand?"

"Yeah," he replied, "Understood." He left the medical bay again after having all his confiscated weapons returned.

Ratchet headed over to his computer and opened up his list of things to accomplish. He saw the next item on the list: 2. Disarm Ironhide by taking away his weapons - He's too trigger-happy. Next to that he typed 'completed.'

_Next: Ratchet pays a visit to Optimus' quarters... This should be interesting indeed... _


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: In the G1 series, they (Bots and at least Megatron) all call him Prime... The humans call him Optimus. **

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro. I'm just having fun with them.

Optimus Prime was sitting in his quarters looking over a datapad that Prowl had given him the night before. The datapad consisted of the schedule of who was on duty and where they would be stationed for the week. It was up to Prime to approve it before it was finalized. He was sipping his afternoon energon when the chimes to his quarters rang.

"Enter," he called to whomever was behind the door.

The door opened and in walked Ratchet. "Afternoon Prime," he said with a smile. Ratchet had been smiling a lot lately and Prime knew it was because Ratchet's mate Red Alert was there with him now.

"Afternoon Ratchet," Optimus replied, "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

Ratchet gave him a shocked look. "Must I need a reason to visit my best friend?"

Optimus said nothing and just gave Ratchet a look waiting for Ratchet's reason.

"You caught me," the white mech replied, "I did come here with a reason."

"I knew it! What is it?"

"I think you should take a vacation," he stated simply.

Optimus gave Ratchet a death glare. "Vacation? Are you out of your processor? I'm a Prime. I can't take a vacation!"

"I wasn't suggesting you leave the City," Ratchet explained, "You can take one right here as long as you relax and don't do any work. You can even have Elita join you on this vacation. Prowl can handle things. Just let him know how long you want to take the vacation. I can even put it as a medic's orders that you two aren't to be disturbed until the 'vacation' is over. I'm sure Prowl will even station two guards outside your quarters if you want. You will be allowed to leave your quarters and go anywhere in the City, you're just not allowed to work or anything that's close to work."

Prime rose from sitting. "Megatron will NOT let that kind of opportunity go by! You should know that by now."

Ratchet didn't know what else to say. Elita would be his only hope to convince Prime to take a vacation.

As if on cue, said femme entered the quarters she shared with her spark-mate. She was just coming back after having spent time with the femmes.

"Ratchet are you bothering Prime again?" Elita bounced into the fore-room of their quarters and after giving the startled Medic a hug, she pounced on Prime and pushed him back to sit down in the chair. She settled on his lap to keep him there. "What's the problem now, Ratchy? Prime arguing about who's on medical leave for the next two weeks?"

Ratchet chuckled and said, "Not exactly. I suggested to Prime to take a vacation and he refuses."

Elita turned to look at her spark-mate. "You don't want to take a vacation?" she asked, "We haven't had a lot of private time together since I've been here and you don't want a vacation?" With an innocent kitten look in her azure optics and still looking at her mate, she asked, "Ratchy, where's that new toy you and Red came up with for stubborn bots?"

"I am NOT going on a vacation!" Prime warned. "Elita, if you're so...so..." he paused, staring at her. ::"Oh by the All-Spark, just shoot me then!":: he sent to her on their private link. Just then, his spark had just sent out a pulse to hers, again.

His spark had been doing that a lot lately and he had tried ignoring it, but it was getting very hard to keep resisting it.

Elita felt the pulse within her spark and her spark reacted in kind. ::"We really should. Did Ratchet say we had to leave the City?"::

::"No, Sweet-spark.":: Optimus told her gently.

::"Then let's take one...":: Elita replied softly, definitely getting into a mood. Her spark was calling to her mate's and he knew it.

"Okay," Prime replied loudly so Ratchet could hear it, "We'll take a two week vacation. I'm sure Ratchet and the other two medics will make sure we're not bothered."

Ratchet smiled and said, "You know we will." He stood up and headed towards the door of Prime and Elita's quarters.

::"Thank you, Ratchet,":: Elita sent to Ratchet in a private link.

"He's all yours, Elita." Ratchet went out the door and put in a medical lock code. He headed back to the medical bay with a huge grin on his face-plates.

Red Alert looked up from what she was doing and noticed her mate with a big grin on his face-plates. "What did you do now?" she asked accusingly.

Ratchet chuckled and said, "Nothing." He sat down at his computer and pulled up his list. 3. Convince Prime to take a vacation. Next to that he typed 'completed'.

At that moment, a knock came to the door and made both look up from their various stations, watching as Optimus and Hot Rod entered.

::"Nothing, right?":: Red teased her spark-mate on their private link. ::"There's only one reason Rodimus would be with Prime with that look on his face! You are really a lovable brat, Ratchy."::

"What's the problem?" Red Alert asked aloud.

"Well... Elita and I decided that it would be best for me to take some time down and Ratchet agreed with us. So I asked Hot Rod to take over the Matrix for the time being."

Red managed to not shoot Ratchet a look at that as he left his station and joined them.

"That would be smart, considering how Elita's been lately," Ratchet said, just as if he had not been the one to corner Optimus himself with Elita.

"Just get it over with," Hot Rod/Rodimus grumbled.

_Next: Skids, Mudflap and Rattrap do something they shouldn't have done_


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Yes, this is a part of Ratchet's list, but trying a different approach to this next item... hehehe... My online friend helped me with this... Hope you enjoy it! I had to bring the Maximals back and finally bring in two characters that were mentioned in the first chapter, but haven't made an appearance. NEST is mentioned by name, but no soldiers from the group are present. Special Guest appearance: Rodimus Prime. **

**One more note: I added a bit more to Chapter 4 which leads into this chapter, so please read that before reading this chapter. I really apologize for the lateness of this chapter, but this chapter was kicking my butt a lot! I really hope this chapter was worth the time it took! LOL...**

**Pairings: Ratchet/Red Alert (fem), Optimus/Elita, Ironhide/Chromia, Inferno/Firestar, Powerglide/Moonracer, and Tigatron/Airazor (you should have guessed that by now)**

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro. I'm just having fun with them.

The day started out relatively quiet. Optimus Prime and Elita-One were now in the middle of their 'vacation'. They were still on the premises, but they were not allowed to do any work whatsoever. Then again, they were too focused on each other to really be much help to anyone except in an emergency like an attack from the grumbling Decepticons.

Ratchet and First Aid were in the recovery bay checking in on two of their patients: Flareup and Cliffjumper. They had both been on a rescue mission two days ago along with Inferno and Firestar, however, Flareup and Cliffjumper had been badly burned and hurt while saving lives.

Medic Red Alert was in the office putting in the new information she was getting from the other two medics before she would head out to check on Powerglide, Moonracer, Ironhide, Chromia, Firestar and Inferno. As they were the only couples right now other than Tigatron and Airazor as well as Optimus and Elita, she was keeping a closer watch on them. Once she was done with the updates, she left the office and headed out to do the rounds with the paired ones, thinking to hit on the maximal pair last, since they had three cubling-sparklings.

Meanwhile, in another area set up as private quarters for maximals and bots, Tigatron was about as furious as Cheetor had ever seen him and Airazor was worse. Then again, it had to do with their three missing fledgling cubs and that meant that there was going to be a lot of trouble in the next few hours.

Cheetor sighed after hearing their story. "I already have an idea where to look…just don't blow the place up again. Wheeljack got blamed the last time…" he half joked.

Tigatron's enraged roar followed the cheetah out of the private quarters even as it shook that part of the building. Airazor's energon-trembling scream followed.

Yep, upsetting the parents was the most dangerous thing to do…and their screams quickly alerted those bots closest to that area of the City.

"Cheetor!"

"I got it!" Cheetor replied.

"Cheetor, what's going on?"

"Don't worry about it," he replied again.

Cheetor dodged the nervous bots as he ran to the command center, where the schedule said that both Leaders would be, Rodimus Prime and Primal. Behind him in the distance the roar shattered one of the clear panels that let in natural light. He sighed heavily as he darted past Red Alert in the corridor.

"RED ALERT! TIGATRON'S GOING MAD!" he yelled to her over his shoulder then was gone. He trusted her to get help and get to the enraged parents before they really did something crazy.

"ON IT, Cheetor!" Medic Red Alert yelled back to him as he disappeared around a corner then moving off to round up some help to deal with Tigatron and Airazor. She knew that the Maximals had worries more than regular bots did because of their animal sides. Facing an enraged Siberian tiger or peregrine falcon, Transformer sized in many respects, was not going to be fun or easy.

Inside the command room, at the main computers were Brawn and Jazz, working on things. At one of the areas, Rodimus Prime was listening to Prowl's newest report when those distant roars alerted them all to trouble.

Primal, working at another computer, sighed heavily as he placed a hand against his face. "Those two are going to tear this City apart if this keeps up…" he muttered as Cheetor arrived.

"Big guy!"

Both Rodimus Prime and Primal gave a groan and turned. Cheetor was the one who usually called them that name, regardless of the situation.

"What is it this time?" Primal asked.

"Do you have to ask? The three Sparklings…"

"Not again!" Brawn groaned.

"That's the third time this week!" Hound added as others groaned at the news.

"Somebot is going to get it now." Jazz, always the one to keep his cool in any situation, said.

"Which ones did it this time?" Mirage asked.

"I have a bad feeling I already know the names," Rodimus said. "Ironhide...?"

The mech, working at a computer since today was his shift in the command center, groaned. "Those idiots are gettin' too good at avoidin' the cameras, Rodimus," he said as images changed on his screen.

"Arcee?" Rodimus turned then. "Chromia?"

"I'm going to flay Rattrap…" Arcee grumbled. She was his great-aunt and she was livid after hearing what those three had done yet again!

"I bet they took the young ones out to the play field," Chromia said darkly.

At that moment, Red Alert entered the room. "I've sedated both parents," she said, holding a med-cloth to the wounds on her upper left arm. "Tigatron nearly ripped me apart. That's not like him at all. The parenting urge is becoming dangerous for him. Ratchet's furious and so is First Aid."

Both leaders sighed heavily at that.

"Can this day get any worse?" Somebot just had to ask…

~**Meadow near the landing field**~

"Wwheeee!"

"Get back here!"

"Oh man, this is not good!" Rattrap wailed.

"Can't you get them back down here?" Mudflap yelled to Skids.

"How should I know they would fly?" Skids shot back.

"This is fuuuuuuuuunnnn!"

"Can't catch me!"

"Yes I can!"

The three little flyer-cats were chasing each other just above the ground, having learned to fly the day before.

Something the twins and Rattrap – who had turned into something of a prankster – hadn't known, and they had just brought the three kits outside for the first time.

~**Meanwhile**~

Unaware of what was going on, Ratchet and Wheeljack were finishing up on the one solar collector project for the City when something came wailing out of the sky. Instinctively both mechs responded to the cry of the Sparkling and dove in an attempt to catch the little one…

Then two…

Then three…

"Ratchet…when does it rain sparklings?" Wheeljack groaned. He had tried diving for one of the sparklings, but fell hard to the ground on his chest. Two of the three were on his back, having crash landed there.

Both peered at him and giggled.

Ratchet was on his aft, holding the first one that Wheeljack had just missed grabbing.

He looked down and checked the little winged cub in his arms, then up at the two peering around Wheeljack's helm at him. He had to fight back the sudden rage. Just by scanning the cubling in his arms, he could tell that all three cublings were not yet completely over the virus they had a few weeks ago and now they were going to get worse!

::"RED ALERT!":: he growled, ::"I'm going to OFFLINE them!"::

"Rodimus…we just found the little ones," Red placed a servo to her helm, "and he's furious."

Rodimus knew Red well enough to know who she meant as he sighed. "Okay, let's get somebot to where they are and bring them back," he ordered.

Everybot scrambled to do that. Three times in one week? The twins and Rattrap were going to really get it now…

Back at the field, Ratchet was on his feet again, watching the three cublings playing 'ring around the bots' around him and Wheeljack, who was going to need some minor repairs.

"Ratchet, we better get them back inside," Wheeljack said darkly, "Then you can call the brats into your office in the medical bay." ::"Medic Red Alert, you might want to be in Ratchet's office before we get there,":: he sent to her.

Ratchet was barely holding back his temper but helped Wheeljack "drive" the playful trio back to the building and inside it. "I want First Aid to look them over," he grumbled. ::"Prowl, hunt down the twins and Rattrap. Bring them to my office."::

::"Not again!":: Prowl groaned. ::"I'll have Barricade and Streetwise help me. In pieces or whole?"::

::"Whole, cos after I'm through with them, Rodimus gets them!":: Ratchet sent back, ::"and what in the name of the AllSpark is Barricade doing involved? Rodimus is going to be upset having a Con around..."::

::"Barricade has been helping me with a few cases, Ratchet, as undercover to find out about something the Cons are doing that _HE_ don't like.":: Prowl winced and rounded up the ones named, heading off to search for the troublemakers, this time with help from Metroplex and the security cameras.

Ratchet and Wheeljack got the little ones to the medical bay, where First Aid was already at now. He quickly moved out of the way, letting Ratchet, then Red Alert as she entered from having come from the command rooms, work with the little ones.

"I'll see to them. It's about time they're fed. You might want to check on the others we have in the recovery bay, Ratchet," Red Alert suggested gently, knowing her spark-mate's moods at times like this.

Ratchet closed his optics for a moment to focus and headed to check on the two. It would help calm him down somewhat as well as keep him from tearing off somebot's head... literally. When it came to sparklings, Ratchet might be over protective but slag-it, that was their future!

A few hours later, with the little ones fed and returned to their sleeping parents, Ratchet waited for news from Prowl and the security forces. He also knew that Arcee, Primal and Rodimus were talking over punishments, but since the endangerment of the Sparklings fell more under his and Prowl's jurisdiction, they would be the ones to give final punishment to the three.

Prowl, with his security team and Barricade, finally dragged the three back to the City from another city. It had taken a call to the human allies of NEST to track down the fools. Now they were going to be handed over to Ratchet and the others for punishment. Though if Tigatron got hold of the three, they'd be offlined... permanently.

They were taken before both Primal and Rodimus, who were looking very grim right now with this situation. "I'm tempted to just throw you three into the brig and leave you there for a megacycle!" Rodimus shot at the three. "You two should have known better than to mess with sparklings!"

As Rodimus dealt with the two, Primal dealt with Rattrap.

"By the AllSpark, Rattrap, you're going to get killed here. What in Primus' name were you thinking?" Primal growled at him.

"Come on, it was a simple joke? How were we to know they would get away?" Rattrap shot back.

"Your joke just cost us one injured medic and two upset bots," Primal snarled back. "By all rights I should let Tigatron deal with you, but he would kill you and then himself for taking a life without reason."

Rattrap was cowering now; when Primal got majorly ticked off, it was something you didn't want to see – and did not want to face.

Matter of fact, Primal inadvertently drew the Autobots' attention onto him and Rattrap. Even Rodimus felt a trace of unease with the Maximal Leader. He turned his attention back onto the twins.

Arcee was there as well but silently watching since this was technically in Rodimus' servos for the twins and Primal's for Rattrap. ::"Rodimus, I think they should work off their punishment. They could help NEST, the Constructicons, Inferno and the Protectobots in rebuilding human cities."::

::"Now that sounds like a plan,":: Rodimus replied with a silent chuckle. "You two are going to help Inferno and Hotspot in helping the humans rebuild a few of their cities." Rodimus finally decided.

Primal got a thoughtful look as he listened to Rodimus give that decision for the twins. "I think Rattrap should help out, Rodimus," he said, "It would keep him in line and out of trouble."

The look Rattrap had was saying he didn't like that at all, though the twins weren't happy but they were a bit more graceful in accepting responsibility.

With things calming down, Red and Ratchet, after being called to hear the punshment of the three, were on their way back to the medical lab.

"You know, I think we should request a time off ourselves," Red commented.

"You think so?" Ratchet was a bit startled, mainly because of his thinking of the near dangerous situation of the little ones.

"Yes. We both need it and First Aid is more than ready to run things for a while again," Red said, giving him a half hug as they entered the medical bay. "Plus, it gives you some time to think of things other than everybot else," she half teased.

"Hey, I'm always thinking of you," he grumbled with a twinkle in his optics.

She smiled back. "Then ask Optimus about a few days or so off. His 'vacation' is almost up."

He shook his head. "After the paperwork."

"Fine brat."

Ratchet sat down at his computer and pulled up his list. He scrolled through it and came to the next item on his list: 4. Note to self: Must control my temper around the twins (Skids and Mudflap) and Rattrap. Next to that he typed 'completed'. He saved the document and closed it out. Then he got onto the paperwork.

Right now, other than Tigatron, Airazor and the cubling-sparklings as well as the two recovering from their injuries otherwise, there was no major medical need for the two medics...and Ratchet had something in mind for Red Alert, something very special.

_Next: Ratchet plans something special with his mate, but will things go smoothly? Stay tuned to find out._


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Transformers Prime continuity - if Red Alert (fem) and others were in it.. Also, basing part of Ratchet and Medic Red Alert's past on my friend Victoria-Blackheart's trilogy. Her trilogy on their past inspired this chapter more than the previous chapters. The parts about their superiors are all my idea though. - Side note: My one online friend cracked up over this chapter...**

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro. I'm just having fun with them.

The day Ratchet had been planning for had finally arrived. Today was the day many years ago that he and Red Alert had become mates. They had been mates for many millennia, but this was the first time on planet Earth that they finally had a chance to celebrate.

Cybertronians didn't celebrate things like anniversaries, birthdays and holidays. Those things were only celebrated on Earth, but since the Autobots had been living on the terran blue and green planet, they decided to follow some of the Earth traditions - mainly holidays. They had a lot of help, not only by researching the internet, but also by their human allies.

However, the few mechs who had mates wanted to know more about anniversaries. They had researched that an anniversary was a celebration that marked a certain event that happened in their lives - in this case a mating/marriage. There were only two mechs who had one: Optimus Prime and Ratchet. Everyone was very surprised when they found out that Ratchet actually had a femme, especially when that femme was his mate. They had been seperated when the War broke out on their home planet and had recently gotten back together again after the aforementioned femme had landed on Earth with Elita-One and a few others.

Ratchet had talked to June Darby many times, mainly about human anatomy, but this time it seemed to be out of his element. He asked her about anniversaries and she did her best to explain it in terms he would understand. Ever since that day, he had been planning something special to spend that day with Red Alert.

~**The week before the day**~

When everybot was out in the field, Ratchet was alone with Optimus.

"Optimus? I was talking with Nurse Darby after she mentioned something about anniversaries and I realized that Red Alert's and mine is next week," Ratchet started, "I really don't know how to ask this, but..."

"You would like to request the day off for the both of you on that day," Optimus finished. It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

Ratchet nodded.

Optimus smiled and said, "Request granted old friend. You deserve it. First Aid is here and available to take care of any injuries that might happen."

Ratchet smiled, which was rare due to the fact that when he smiled, it usually wasn't good. "Thank you."

~**Two days before the day**~

Red Alert was out in the field with Optimus, Elita-One, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Arcee. A few others were either on patrol or recharging in their berths in the silo. Ratchet was teaching a few things to First Aid, preparing him for the job he had in the next two days when both Ratchet and Red Alert were off for the day.

After Ratchet was done teaching First Aid everything he asked him questions to see how much the young mech remembered.

First Aid answered every question correctly.

_"Ratchet, activate the ground bridge..."_ came Optimus' voice, which was heard by both medics.

Ratchet headed over to the switch and sent the ground bridge.

Everybot came back in one piece this time, but soon it was time for Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee to pick up their charges from school, so they headed right back out again. Optimus, Elita-One and First Aid all headed to their recharge berths, leaving Ratchet and Red Alert alone.

Ratchet smiled at Red Alert and wrapped his arms around her. They were finally alone. Red Alert returned the gesture and vented a contented sigh through her intakes. Ratchet then told her that they both had the day off in two days and that he had a surprise for her.

Red Alert wasn't sure what Ratchet had planned, but she was very interested and couldn't wait until that day.

~**The day of the Anniversary**~

Ratchet and Red Alert spent their Anniversary doing everything that Ratchet had planned. They went for a long drive, they went to the place they had gone to for their first date on Earth since they couldn't go to where they went on their home planet, and finally when evening came, they arrived back at the silo and retired to their shared quarters.

As they entered their quarters the lights turned on. Ratchet locked the door to their quarters, took her servo in his and led her over to the high-grade energon chilling in a bucket. He poured a glass each for Red Alert and himself.

The evening was going well. They were being very intimate with each other, almost close to joining sparks when the moment was ruined.

::First Aid to Ratchet...::

::Ratchet here...:: Ratchet grumbled ::What is it First Aid?::

::I have a problem...::

::Is anyone close to offlining?::

::No,:: First Aid replied, ::It's important though...::

Ratchet vented a disappointed sigh. ::I'll be there...Ratchet out.::

Red Alert looked down at him. She knew by the look on his faceplates that he wasn't happy. "Go help him...I understand...We have all night when you come back." She rolled off him and moved to his side.

Ratchet rolled off the berth and leaned down looking into her pale blue optics. "I shouldn't be long," he replied softly.

"I'll stay awake just for you," she replied just as softly with a smile.

Ratchet left their quarters and headed towards the medical bay. When he arrived at the medical bay, he couldn't believe his optics. "By the AllSpark!" he replied. There in front of him, every bot was injured in some capacity. "What in Primus' name happened?"

Bulkhead looked at Ratchet sheepishly. "Uh... finger painting?"

Ratchet scoffed. "Highly unlikely, unless you happened to be finger painting in a demolitions field." He shook his helm, grabbed a few tools and headed over to Optimus first to repair his right arm.

First Aid started to repair the huge gash in Arcee's left leg.

A few kliks later, Red Alert came out to see why Ratchet hadn't come back yet. Her pale blue optics went wide when she saw the scene before her. She stood there saying nothing, just taking it all in. She also noticed that the human children were still there, but it wasn't too bad as June was also there.

First Aid looked up in mid-repair on Bulkhead's left arm when he saw Red Alert standing there. "I'm so sorry, Red Alert," he replied, looking very nervous. He was afraid she was angry with him for keeping Ratchet.

Red Alert gave First Aid a smile. "There's nothing you need to feel sorry about, First Aid. You felt overwhelmed, that's all. It happens to every medic. It happened to Ratchet when his superior left him in charge and it even happened to me when mine did."

Ratchet grumpily continued to repair Elita-One's left servo. "Yes, it does," he replied, "However this should never have happened."

Red Alert looked at Ratchet. "Calm down Ratchet, or I will make you calm down." She looked at Bumblebee and asked him if he had been repaired yet.

Bumblebee beeped that he hadn't.

Red Alert picked up a tool, headed over to Bumblebee and started to work on his injury. Without looking at Ratchet she asked, "Why don't you tell the story about the time your superior left you in charge of the medical bay?"

Ratchet looked up from his work and said, "No one wants to hear that."

Miko giggled and said, "Of course we do!"

Jack, Raf and June had become very interested then. They looked at Ratchet and waited to see if he was going to tell them.

Ratchet vented a sigh. He finished repairing Elita's servo. "When I was a young medic-in-training, my superior decided at the last minute that he was going to take a day off without even telling me. I wasn't prepared at all. Not only did I have to repair others, but I had to delegate orders to the staff members. I was completely overwhelmed. I commed my superior and he came to bail me out just like I did with First Aid. A few weeks later he did it again, but this time I didn't com him for help. I handled it and then was promoted to part-time medic, no longer medic-in-training."

Red Alert smiled as she finished repairing Bumblebee.

Bumblebee beeped his thank you to her.

Red Alert looked at everyone. "My experience was just as bad. My superior was the crankiest and grumpiest mech you could ever meet. He was a few years ahead of me. One day he left me in charge of the medical bay while we were in medical school. When I ended up overwhelmed, I commed him, but he told me that I could handle it. He knew I could. So I calmed down and handled it. Little did I know that he had been watching me the whole time."

"So who was he, Red Alert?" Jack questioned.

Red Alert smiled. "You know him already, Jack."

Jack and the others looked over at Ratchet.

Ratchet shrugged. "I knew she could do it. Okay, all bots need to recharge for the night. Your guardians will be fine in the morning."

Optimus looked at June and the children. "I think it would be best if June and the children stay here for the night. That way they're protected."

June said, "I should call Miko's host parents and Raf's mother to let them know that they're spending the night at my house with Jack so they don't worry."

Optimus nodded then sent the bots to their quarters. He and Elita headed to their shared quarters.

Red Alert started to clean all the tools.

First Aid followed June out of the silo so she could make her phone calls. After she had made the calls they came back inside. He looked at the four humans and asked them to follow him. They could all bunk in his quarters for the night since he was on duty the rest of the night.

When they were finally alone again, Ratchet walked over to Red Alert. "I'm sorry our night was ruined," he replied.

Red Alert turned to him with a smile and lightly rested her right servo on his left cheek-plate. "It wasn't ruined, Ratchet," she replied softly, "Things like this happen and you can't plan them ahead of time."

Ratchet returned the smile, moved her servo from his cheek-plate and gave the top of it a gentle kiss. He headed over to the computer quickly, pulled up his list and found the next item. 5. Put First Aid in charge of things while Red Alert and I take a day off. Next to the item he typed 'completed'. He saved it and closed it out.

First Aid came back and looked at the couple. "Okay you two. You two go finish what you were doing and get some recharge yourself."

Ratchet grinned. "Yes Sir." He gently picked up Red Alert bridle style and carried her back to their shared quarters for the night.

First Aid shook his helm and chuckled. He wished he had a mate like Optimus and Ratchet. He wondered if there were any femmes still alive out there.

_Next: First Aid has a problem...What it is, is not what anyone would have suspected. Can Ratchet help him? Let's find out._


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro. I'm just having fun with them.

Flareup was in the medical bay being repaired by Ratchet. She had a little mishap out on the demolitions field.

Ratchet was grumbling as he worked on her injuries. He really wished she was more careful when she was handling explosives. A demolitions expert should always be careful no matter how old or experienced they were.

Flareup rolled her crystal blue optics as she listened to the grumpy medic. She had heard the same speech from him many times before as this wasn't the first time she had been injured by her own explosives. She had also heard it from her guardians Ironhide and Chromia too.

"Oh come on, Doc," she replied, "I'm still in one piece and I only injured myself this time. At least no one was playing tag on the demolitions field this time."

Ratchet stopped in mid-repair and looked at her. "Flareup, I tell you this every time you come in here with an injury," he replied, "I tell you to be careful, you tell me that you will and you're right back in here not more than four Earth hours later."

Flareup giggled. "That's because I keep hoping that First Aid will be in here and not you." She had a crush on the young medic, but she never had a chance to talk to him.

Just then said young medic walked into the medical bay after making a 'house call' to Tigatron and Airazor's quarters. Ratchet had sent him to check on the three sparklings who had been brought in with the virus a few weeks ago. First Aid had been checking on them every three solar cycles just to make sure they weren't getting worse.

"Tigatron and Airazor's sparklings are doing much better, Ratchet," First Aid replied. After the escapade with Skids, Mudflap and Rattrap a few days ago, he was surprised that the little ones hadn't gotten worse.

"I'm glad to hear that," Ratchet replied not looking up from his work.

Flareup watched First Aid. If she had been able to blush, her facial plating would have been a very bright crimson. As soon Flareup knew that First Aid was going to look in her direction, she would cast her optics down to watch what Ratchet was doing.

"Ouch!" Flareup exclaimed, "That hurt, Doc!"

"Then don't get injured all the time," Ratchet replied, "It really does get tiresome telling you the same thing every time you come in here with injuries."

Flareup rolled her crystal blue optics again.

When First Aid would look over at Flareup, his spark would beat really fast that he was afraid it would burst out of his chest. He was too shy to talk to her though. All he could do was just watch her from a distance.

Ratchet finished repairing Flareup.

"Thank you, Ratchet," she replied with a bright smile, then hopped off the medical berth.

Ratchet picked up a cloth and started cleaning the tools he had just used. "You're welcome Flare. Just be careful. I don't want to have to repair you again."

Flareup headed out the door of the medical bay.

First Aid chuckled as he looked at what he was doing. "You know he'll repair you if you do, because Ironhide and Chromia will blast him from here to next week!" He looked up, noticed that Flareup was no longer there and vented a very heavy sigh. He could guarantee that Flareup hadn't heard anything he said.

Ratchet turned to First Aid. "Don't encourage her..." He noticed the look on the poor young mech's facial plating. "What's that look for?"

First Aid sighed again. "Flareup..." he replied.

Ratchet was confused a bit and then it hit him like a ton of energon bricks. This was too good to be true. The young medic had a crush on Flareup and only moments before First Aid walked into the medical bay, Flareup had told Ratchet that she keeps getting injured in the hopes of being repaired by First Aid.

Ratchet had a grin that would creep anyone out on his lip plates. "I know a way you can have a chance to talk to her and tell her how you feel," he replied. Then he told First Aid everything.

~**A few days later**~

Flareup had been injured yet again, only this time it wasn't as bad. As she entered the medical bay, she looked around for Ratchet. Not seeing him, she looked over at First Aid. Her spark skipped a beat, but kept it to herself.

"Where's Ratchet?" she asked, "He's usually in here every time I happen to get injured."

First Aid turned to see her and noticed the injuries. "He decided to take the day off and spend it with Red Alert. What the pit happened to you?"

"Same old, same old..." Flareup replied with a shrug.

First Aid picked up some medical tools and said, "Hop up onto the medical berth. I'll patch you up."

Flareup did as she was told and just watched the young medic walk over to her.

First Aid set to work on Flare's injuries. He was very gentle about it too.

Flare smiled as she watched him work on her injuries.

As he worked, they had a conversation. One thing led to another and by the time he was done repairing her, he had asked her if she wanted to get a cube of energon in the rec room with him. She agreed and they headed off together.

Unbeknownst to them, two pairs of optics watched them leave the medical bay.

Red Alert looked at her mate and asked, "Was that one of the things on your list?"

Ratchet chuckled and led her into the medical bay. "In a way it was..." He walked over to his computer, sat down, and brought up the document. He looked through the list of everything that had been accomplished so far. He was practically flying through the items he had typed up. He found the item he was looking for: 6. Help First Aid with anything that's bothering him. Next to the item he typed 'completed'.

He saved the document, closed it out and headed back over to his mate.

"Now that we're alone..." Ratchet's blue optics flashed mischievously.

_Next: Ratchet really hates Earth Technology...Gee, I wonder why?_


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Another Transformers Prime continuity chapter... Reference to the episodes: Masters and Students, Convoy, and the mini series of One Shall Stand mentioned. Again, Red Alert is the femme medic from Transformers Animated. **

**Also, I really apologize for not getting this up sooner, but it's been a pain trying to figure out how I wanted this chapter to end. I have also decided that for this chapter, to watch the last episode of Season 2 and parts of Season 3 of the Transformers Prime series to get this chapter done as well. It won't completely follow those episodes, but as you've noticed, there is no Smokescreen for my Prime chapters and I decided to have this happen instead of what really happened at the end of Season 2. It was worth all the time it to work on this one. Ultra Magnus is a combination of G1 and Prime.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro. I'm just having fun with them. Caitlin Williams, David Williams and Lora Williams all belong to me. Only Caitlin will speak.

It was a very hot Saturday outside the silo in Jasper, Nevada. Inside the silo, however it was nice and cool. A few of the Autobots were out on patrol and some where just relaxing in their berthrooms. It was very quiet. There hadn't been a peep from the Decepticons in a while. The Autobots weren't sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign.

Ratchet was working at the main computer, while Red Alert and First Aid were busy repairing Streetwise in the sickbay. Their patient was being very difficult. He did nothing but complain.

"Streetwise, if you don't keep your vocal receptor shut, I will shut it for you while we work," Medic Red Alert threatened.

Streetwise was quiet after that threat. Both medics smiled at each other and continued to work on the repairs in silence.

The human children: Jack, Miko and Rafael were at the base while their guardians were out in the field. They were working on their homework as Ratchet worked at the computer. Ratchet could still keep an optic on them and 'help' them if they had a question. After the mishap that got the children in trouble with their science projects, he vowed never to do their homework for them again.

As Ratchet worked, he ended up getting mounds of errors on his computer screen. "Oh for Primus' sake! Blasted Earth tech!" he exclaimed, "I'm so tired of primitive Earth technology. It never works right!"

The kids looked up from their homework and looked at Ratchet. Raf opened up his laptop computer, hit a few keys and fixed the problem immediately.

Ratchet turned to look at him and gave a rare smile. "Thank you, Rafael..." he replied.

"No problem!" Raf replied. The kids went back to their homework.

Ratchet went back to work on the computers. He was really glad that Raf was around to help out when things like this happened. He had admitted it a few times, especially after the time he saved Raf's life from Dark Energon. That was when he realized that he needed Raf.

Five Earth minutes later, Medic Red Alert came out of the sickbay area leaving First Aid to clean up the tools they had used and Streetwise to rest. "Hello children..." she replied kindly.

"Hello Red Alert..." they responded back in kind still concentrating on their homework. It was really interesting that they would even consider doing their homework while in the presence of the Autobots, but Ratchet had kind of threatened to play classical music to torture them with. None of them wanted that, so they actually worked on their homework.

Medic Red Alert walked over to Ratchet. She gave him a hug and smiled at him.

Ratchet turned from the computer screen, returned the hug and smiled back at her. "What is the status on Streetwise?" he asked.

"Streetwise will be down for a few solar cycles. I just hope the Protectobots aren't needed at any time during his down time or Defensor will look pretty strange with one leg. When he's missing an arm, it's still strange, but at least he can still stand," she told him.

Ratchet nodded at that. "Have you told the other Protectobots, besides First Aid since he already knows?"

"I was just on my way to talk to them and Prime now. First Aid is cleaning up the tools and then he's going to take a recharge. Streetwise is resting as comfortably as he can as well."

"Alright - After you do that, I want you to take a recharge as well. I don't need anything happening to you," Ratchet told her. Just as soon as he said that, errors popped up on the computer screen. He groaned and started swearing in Cybertronian.

The children looked up from their homework and their eyes widened. They had never heard Ratchet say anything in Cybertronian before. It was definitely a first and it wasn't nice Cybertronian either. They looked at each other with worried looks wondering if they should move to another area of the silo to finish their homework.

Medic Red Alert's pale blue optics widened at the language coming from his vocal receptor. She hadn't heard such colorful language since just before the Great War started. "Ratchet! Watch your language. The children may not understand Cybertronian, but it is possible to pick up certain words even if they won't be able to pronounce them properly."

Ratchet looked at her a bit surprised, but knew she spoke the truth. She always spoke the truth, even if it hurt his spark a bit. He turned towards the children. "Forgive me for my language," he replied, "It was wrong of me to say things like that in front of you."

"No problem..." replied Jack, "It was very... interesting. We haven't heard your native language before."

"It was cool to hear!" Miko exclaimed with a smile.

"You're forgiven Ratchet," Raf replied with a sheepish smile, "It's okay...Really."

Ratchet gave a look of relief that they had forgiven him for his language. He knew that it was only a matter of time before he took that too far and they wouldn't forgive him. He turned his attention back to what he had been working on once again and hoped that this time he would get it complete.

Raf quickly typed a few commands on his laptop and fixed Ratchet's problem once again. "There you go, Ratchet," he replied.

Ratchet stopped swearing and said, "Thank you, Rafael." He turned to look at his mate. "I'm sorry - I'm just really tired of the bugs in the system left over from the previous tenants. It would be much better if I had the kind of equipment that the _Xantium_ has."

Red Alert gave a slight grin. "I know you would like that here. Maybe one of these days we can replace all this equipment with Cybertronian technology. However, you do know that once that happens, you won't need Rafael to debug any errors you end up with, right? Besides, the _Xantium_ is maintenance right now. The Wreckers have to add a few new upgrades to the great battleship before it's needed again."

Ratchet gave a look of surprise. He just realized that she was right. If he had Cybertronian technology, he wouldn't need Raf's help in that arena. He wouldn't need Raf around anymore. He didn't like that thought. He had been so used to Raf being around helping him out, that going back to the way things used to be would be impossible now.

At that moment, he remembered to call in Elita-One from patrol for the meeting, even though it wasn't that big a deal. He knew the Femme Commander would want to know about Streetwise.

::"Ratchet to Elita-One."::

::"Elita-One here."::

::"Send me your quadrants, you are needed for the meeting."::

::"You mean I can't miss one?":: she teased back, though she sent the information to him.

::"You know Optimus; he will want all of his commanders to be here.":: Ratchet replied with a silent chuckle and programmed in the information to the computer then activated the ground bridge, aware of both Red Alert and the kids now watching him in surprise. Red Alert knew something was up, having caught the alert of a message on the public links which had made her pause on her way off to talk to the others.

A moment later, Elita-One halted in vehicle form then transformed, greeting the others. "This meeting better be very important to bring me in from the field," Elita stated, "I even asked Ratchet if I could miss one, and he told me no."

Red Alert allowed a soft puff exhaust escape her lip-plates. "It _is_ important Femme Commander Elita. It's a medical update on Streetwise. We'd better not keep Prime, Prowl, Jazz and the other Protectobots waiting any longer." She gave Ratchet a peck on the cheek-plate and started to head off to where Prime and the aforementioned bots were waiting with Elita following alongside her.

Ratchet watched as both femmes headed off to the meeting, turning back to his computers and to keeping an eye on the kids.

Twenty Earth minutes later, after Medic Red Alert had updated him and the others at the meeting on the condition of Streetwise, Prime and the others appeared in the main area of the silo. The bots who had been out in the field had already returned and were resting, waiting for Prime. The only bot not there was First Aid, who was still in recharge.

Prime looked at all the bots and three human children who were assembled. He took his time preparing what he was going to say in his processor before making the announcement. "Streetwise is going to be down for a few days. Which means we're going to have to step up our efforts to help the Protectobots and do what we can to help the humans of Jasper without revealing ourselves."

The bots just nodded, not really knowing what to say. They had no problems stepping up their efforts to assist the Protectobots while one of their own were down. There was, however, a voice which came out of the silence after Prime's announcement.

"How are you going to do that?" asked Jack, "The Protectobots have revealed themselves already, even as Defensor. How are you going to do that same thing by not revealing yourselves?"

"Those are good questions, Jack," Prime replied, "We have the ability to create holoforms that can do things like you humans. You've seen Arcee's holoform already. The rest of us - even Ratchet - can create one. Fowler has been dealing with the times we have to be in bot form outside the silo. We must remain in vehicular mode to concentrate for the length of time it will be needed for. We only use them when we absolutely have to."

"Those of us who have motorcycle modes like Arcee and myself, we activate them in order to maintain the low profile," added Elita, "Most of us Femmes have two vehicle modes, like Medic Red Alert. One of these days, you will see the other femmes. They are busy in other corners of this country."

Medic Red Alert was standing next to her mate during the whole thing and nodded. "I have an emergency vehicle and non-emergency one. It helps me to blend in with the other vehicles."

At that moment, the alarm sounded, warning that one: a vehicle was approaching, and that two, five energon signals had just been picked up out in the desert side of the town...

Everyone looked at Ratchet, who looked surprised by the fact that the alarm was not a bug issue. "By the Allspark..." His attention was more on the new signals than the familiar car that belonged to Fowler, when he was in town at least.

Meanwhile, Tigatron, Airazor, Mera and the two other feline cubs with wings were moving across the desert despite the heat, heading for the town of Jasper but would unknowingly be passing close to the hidden base.

Mera and her two sisters were dead tired as they put one paw in front of the other, following their dad, who was worried. Airazor was riding the winds as they walked. Tigatron was hoping to catch one of the Autobots at the base, which he knew was located near the town of Jasper but not where. He had to give them the information about the City and it's location. Ultra Magnus wanted the group to move there where they would have better backup and defenses.

Airazor was attempting to locate one of the bots out in the field. That was why she wasn't on the ground but in the air.

Fowler glanced at June as he halted at the stop sign at the t-shaped intersection that was also the most direct path to the base itself. Once he was sure they weren't being trailed and that there were no others in sight, he headed for the hidden doorway directly ahead. He had come because of some things found that his bosses weren't happy over and they wanted answers from Prime, but in a low key way and that meant for him to go speak with June, who had agreed to go with him to the base.

June was talking to Fowler when she saw a white tiger and peregrine falcon traveling across the desert along with three little ones. "What are animals doing out here?"

Fowler looked over in the direction she was looking and saw them. Again, that was something else he was going to have to talk to Prime about. The reason Fowler was coming to talk to Prime, was so he could get some information on a group that popped up on the sensors.

Meanwhile, inside the base, Medic Red Alert recognized the five energon signals trekking across the desert. She had to get out there and rescue them from the heat of the Nevada desert.

"I know those signals anywhere," she told them, "Open the door to the base. I will go out there, rescue them and bring them inside. They won't last long out there. Their signals are already weakening. I need you to wake First Aid up out of recharge and tell him it's an emergency." Medic Red Alert quickly transformed into her ambulance alt-mode since it was an emergency, and raced to the entrance of the base.

Ratchet looked at his mate stunned, but did as she instructed. Once Ratchet picked her signal up at the entrance, he opened the door for her. Then he commed First Aid privately, actually apologized for waking him out of his recharge cycle and told him the situation.

First Aid hadn't even laid down to recharge yet. He didn't correct Ratchet on his apology as it wasn't very often Ratchet apologized for anything. He had been updating his brother Streetwise's medical records. He acknowledged Ratchet's com and gave a soft sigh. He left his quarters and headed out to where Ratchet and the others were waiting for Red Alert to return.

Once the entrance to the base opened, she raced out with lights and siren going streaking across the open desert.

The family of energon signals was still a ways away from the base. The young cublings were starting to get tired.

Mera, the oldest of the cublings spoke up. "Daddy, we're tired. How much longer?"

Tigatron stopped moving. "I don't know, Mera. It should be around here, but there is nothing but rocks and desert."

"We can't walk anymore," all three cublings whined.

Tigatron looked up at his mate Airazor. "Do you see anything?"

Airazor look around and saw an ambulance racing to their location; a huge cloud of dust behind it. She picked up an energon signal. "Friendly arriving in five kliks." She settled down on her mate's back and waited.

The cublings joined their parents, seeking shelter from the blistering fireball called Earth's sun, while they waited. The cublings tried keeping their eyes open, but were having a hard time doing so.

Medic Red Alert arrived and opened the back doors of her ambulance mode. "Tigatron, load your cublings inside, then both you and Airazor get inside. I will take you five to the base for energon and rest."

Tigatron did as she instructed. Once all five were inside, Medic Red Alert closed the doors and drove back to the base. When she passed Fowler, he used that as an opportunity to get into the base when it was opened by Ratchet.

The door to the secret base opened up and both Medic Red Alert and Agent Fowler entered. They drove the long road to the center of the base. When both vehicles reached the area where Prime and the others were gathered, Medic Red Alert's back doors opened to let out her companions.

Tigatron jumped out startling but not scaring the children. He gently helped the cublings out one at a time while Airazor flew out.

Once they were out, Medic Red Alert transformed quickly. She unsubspaced the emergency medical kit that she used when working with the Maximals when Rhinox wasn't around. She looked at both Ratchet and First Aid.

"I need your help," she told them, "Each of you grab a cubling and follow me to Ratchet's bay." She gently picked up Mera and held her close. "Tigatron, Airazor, you two come as well. After we take care your little ones, we will take care of you. You were out there for who knows how long. I thought you five were in statsis on-board the _Xantium_, which yes, I know is in maintenance but the stasis pods wouldn't be affected."

Tigatron looked at her. "We were, but Rhinox woke us up to send us to find you at Ultra Magnus' orders. The orders were to relay something very important to Prime."

Medic Red Alert led the way to Ratchet's bay with Mera. Ratchet with a cubling, First Aid with a cubling, Tigatron and Airazor all followed behind her.

Fowler and June exited the vehicle, climbed up to the platform joining the children and looked at Prime eye-level.

Prowl, Jazz and Elita looked at Fowler and June. They had seen the human adults before, so it was no surprise to actually see them. What was a surprise is what on Earth could have brought Agent Fowler all the way to their location.

"PRIME!" Fowler yelled to get his attention, "Some new group has popped up working alongside vehicles that transform just like you and your huge team. Not failing to mention, what are animals like those that your three medics are working on right now doing here? I need answers! I want answers. The Pentagon needs and wants them too! Start talking!"

Prime sighed. "Agent Fowler...The group that you are talking about is NEST. They are a military group that we allied ourselves with long before we came to Jasper. Ratchet, Arcee, Cliffjumper, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and myself came here to widen the parameters to protect the humans of this planet better. Instead of us traveling all over the globe like before, I decided it would be better to split up into small groups to make it easier since energon is so scarce and the Decepticons are so numerous. As for the animals, I do not know the answer to that. However, I am positive that Medic Red Alert does and will explain it to all of us once she and the other medics are finished with their task."

The medics finished their task with the Maximals who were now resting comfortably. Ratchet and First Aid cleaned up the area they worked in as well as the tools they had used, while Medic Red Alert headed out to Prime and the others.

First Aid finally headed off to recharge. He was supposed to get a little recharge after working on his brother Streetwise, but staved it off to update some medical records. When the Maximals showed up with their little ones, he was needed to help out with them.

"MEDIC RED ALERT!" Fowler boomed.

She looked up at him. "Yes, Agent Fowler?" She already knew what he wanted to talk to her about, so she stood still and waited for him to speak further.

"Who are those animals, why are they here and how did you have the ability to work on them? I thought you only knew Cybertronian anatomy?"

Before Medic Red Alert could start to explain anything, Ratchet appeared. "Don't yell at her, Agent Fowler. We have injured patients who need their rest. If you're going to yell, then I would suggest you _leave_ until our patients have had enough rest."

Fowler scowled at Ratchet. He had experience with Ratchet's behavior and attitude many times, but this one was different - really different.

Prime looked at Fowler. "Agent Fowler - if you want answers, yelling isn't the best way. Ratchet is right. We _do_ have injured patients. You need to relax."

Medic Red Alert vented a sigh. "Agent Fowler, the animals you saw are Maximals. Due to Earth's compound makeup, they cannot maintain their Cybertronian forms like we can for long. They will go into stasis lock if they do. They are techno-organic - half animal, half bot. They are descendants of the Autobots. I have the ability to work on them, because their medic taught me the basics. If they needed more than what we had just done, I would have had to call their medic here. The reason they are here is because they have important information to relay to Prime. They wouldn't trek across the hot desert if it wasn't."

"What _kind_ of information?" Fowler demanded.

"Tigatron didn't tell me, but their orders came from Ultra Magnus himself," Medic Red Alert told him.

"Ultra Magnus..." Prime trailed off. He hadn't heard Ultra Magnus' name in so long, he had presumed him offline.

"Who is Ultra Magnus?" Fowler asked the bots. He wanted one of them to speak up about who this Ultra Magnus truly was. This was definitely a name kept from him and he wasn't sure why.

"Ultra Magnus is a strict by-the-book Commander who will run Autobot City once it has been found," Medic Red Alert told him.

Tigatron couldn't rest. He had an important message to deliver and he must deliver it. When he heard Medic Red Alert mention Autobot City, that was his cue to step forward. "Autobot City has been found, Medic Red Alert," he told her, then looked at the others, but mainly at Optimus Prime. "Ultra Magnus has located Autobot City. It's not far from here. He sent us to relay the message that Autobot City has been found and that it's imperative that all Autobots in this Base be moved there."

There was a collective stunned silence from everyone who heard the message from Tigatron.

June decided to speak up. "You mean, you bots would leave Jasper and head to someplace called Autobot City? Leave us vulnerable to Megatron who already knows where we reside? You wouldn't do that, would you, Optimus?"

Optimus Prime thought about it and then said, "June, we would not leave you vulnerable. You and the children along with their families would be fine in a city outside of Autobot City. The Protectobots would be around the city you would be residing in. If you stay here in Jasper without us here, it would be catastrophic. By moving to the city near where we would be, you would be protected by more than just the bots you see here. I am sure Agent Fowler would not mind relocating your families once more to a safer and well-guarded city which will always be protected by us."

Fowler stood there dumbfounded. He remembered how hard it was to relocate Raf's family the first time. Relocating them a second time, along with Miko's foster parents for the first time was going to be harder. June and Jack wouldn't be too hard, as long as they were willing to leave Jasper and just go along with the bots. "I'll have to think of something to say to Raf's family in order to get them to relocate one more time," Fowler told him, "It was hard enough the first time. This time is going to be even harder. It can be done, if the children and June truly want to leave. I will also have to think of something to tell Miko's host parents. I swear Prime...One of these days, you bots are going to kill me."

June nodded her head, but was silent. She had a lot to think about and consider. Could she give up her job at the hospital and move to a new city she knew nothing about? She had lived in Jasper for a long time. Was she willing to give up that part of her life and start a new life in another city? True she would be with Jack, the Autobots, Miko, Raf and their respective families, but was she willing to sacrifice her career to do so? After a long silence, she decided it was time to say something. "Optimus, it's a big decision to make. When do you need to know my decision?"

Prime looked at Tigatron for the time frame. "It has to be done as soon as possible, Prime. I would say no longer than one Earth week. If you have a lot to move, then it must start going now. Ratchet's medical equipment can stay until last in case unforseen things occur while packing or you have to take care of the Decepticon threat."

Ratchet and Medic Red Alert gave each other a look. They were silently communicating with each other, but they had also come to the same conclusion. The question was, which one of them was going to mention it? They debated silently and Medic Red Alert won. The loser in that debate had to mention it. Whether Ratchet allowed her to win was going to be a debate for another time.

Ratchet cleared his vocal receptor. "Optimus, Streetwise won't be able to travel with us due to his injuries. We might have to ground bridge him to Autobot City."

"Actually, Prime, we're not sure how much movement Streetwise will have on that day yet," Medic Red Alert told him, "We may have to find a trailer to load him into to transport him instead."

Fowler looked at Prime and said, "I can hook you up with a trailer. You can load whatever you need to into it besides the injured bot."

"Thank you, Agent Fowler," stated Prime, "That will be most helpful. We will also need to use it for moving whatever June, the children and their families want to take with them. We will also have to transport their civilian vehicles as well. There are enough bots here to transport Raf's family. I think it will work having one family member per bot, in case of trouble on the way there."

"Yes, Prime!" the bots chorused. Then the bots moved off to start with their packing, while June stayed with the children and Fowler went to make the phone call for the trailer. Tigatron moved off to go rest with his family now that he had delivered the message.

Medic Red Alert was ready to move off to check on Streetwise, when Ratchet's voice halted her. "Red, I would like you to take your recharge now. I will check on Streetwise."

Medic Red Alert turned to look at him. She was going to say something about that, but then remembered that he told her that he wanted her to recharge after notifying Prime about Streetwise. "Alright..." she told him, then headed to their shared quarters.

Ratchet gave a smile at that, then headed to the sickbay area to check on Streetwise. He wanted to check on how well the young mech was healing. He looked at the monitors and checked Streetwise's vitals. They were stable so he left the area. As he was coming back out to where the children were resting, he saw Jack slowly starting to wake up from his sleep. He didn't say anything at the moment. He went right back to the main monitor and went to work on updating Streetwise's medical file so both Red Alert and First Aid had the most current information.

A few bots came out of their quarters with a few things in their arms. As they carried those items to another area of the base, Jack looked at them confused. He stood up and walked over to the railing of the platform he was on. "Ratchet, what's going on?" he asked.

Ratchet continued to work and without looking at Jack he replied, "We're moving from this Base to a place we belong - Autobot City. They're packing the items we're taking with us and putting them in a safe place until the trailer that Agent Fowler requested for arrives."

_"YOU'RE MOVING?"_ Jack yelled out loud enough to wake up Miko, Raf and even his mother who had eventually fallen asleep. However, June hadn't woken up at that yell.

"Who's moving?" asked Miko.

"The Autobots are leaving?" asked Raf.

Ratchet turned from the monitor and looked at the three children. "Yes, we're moving..." he told them dead-panned, "First, we were just told after you fell asleep. Second, Optimus has already decided to bring you and your families that are here in Jasper with us. Agent Fowler will figure out how to tell Miko's host parents and Raf's family about the move."

"Where are we going to move to?" asked Raf.

"Autobot City..." Ratchet stated, "A city that once belonged to us and was deemed lost millions of years ago. We are moving back there. We'll have plenty of room and the none of the computers will have all the bugs that these do. We have wanted to go back there for a while, but we couldn't find it. Ultra Magnus has located it and has requested for all bots here to move to Autobot City right away. However, as I stated before, Optimus is planning to bring the three of you and your families here in Jasper with us."

"Where will we live?" asked Miko, "Will we live in Autobot City as well?"

Ratchet scoffed. "No. There's a city outside Autobot City where our human allies are known to live. The only humans allowed inside Autobot City are liaisons and military personnel. We have a few liaisons who are military personnel. We have worked with them for a long time. I will actually have a medical bay to work in and not just a hollowed out area with a few berths. It will have a surgery room, recovery room, trauma center and even an office where I can work in silence without being bothered."

"The Protectobots will be residing somewhere in the city," Arcee replied as she came out to where everyone else was, "From what I remember, Autobot City itself transforms."

Bumblebee appeared and beeped that it indeed transformed.

Elita-One joined the others when she heard the conversation going on. "Children, since you're awake, I will give you an instruction. When you go to your homes to pack, make sure you and your families only pack things that you can't replace. Anything of sentimental value or anything that will cost too much to replace you must pack that. We can ask our human allies in the city you'll be living in to take you to get items to furnish your homes. Since we have to cart your non-transforming vehicles and Streetwise in the trailer Prime will have behind him, there will not be room for any furniture. You will have to tell that to your families as well."

"Yes, Elita-One..." the children responded.

June awoke not too long later. She looked at her watch and realized what time it was. Her eyes went wide and said, "You children must be starving by now. I wish I had my car here so I could run home, make something and bring it back here."

Miko groaned. "Mrs. Darby, we are hungry, but couldn't we have pizza or something? We don't want you to go through the trouble of making a meal for us...especially at this time."

June sighed. "Okay," she told her, "I still need a vehicle to go order it and pick it up."

Elita-One wasn't doing much of anything at the time. "I can take you, June..." she told her, then transformed into her other alt-mode which was a rose colored Sabaru Impreza with yellow star markings. She started her engine and opened the driver's side door as she waited for June.

June was impressed. "Thank you, Elita-One." Then she turned back to the children. "What would you like on your pizza?"

The children huddled together, talked it over and came to a decision. "Pepperoni and extra cheese," Miko replied, "We'll also need something to drink and something to drink from."

June smiled. "I'll pick that up too, Miko. We'll be back as soon as we can." She climbed inside, closed the door and buckled up.

Ratchet headed over to the control panel to open the door to the base for Elita and June.

Elita drove down the roadway inside the base and once the door was opened, she drove out and headed down the road towards Jasper. Elita gave June full control of the vehicle. They talked occasionally on the trip into town to order and pick up the pizza.

June pulled into the parking lot of a convenient store to get the drinks for the children, Fowler and herself. She picked up a variety of drinks so they could choose what they wanted, as well as one package each of plastic cups, napkins and paper plates, paid for them, then headed back out to Elita. She opened the back door, set the bags on the floor, closed it, and climbed into the driver's seat again. From there, they headed to the pizza place.

When they arrived at the local pizza place, they pulled into the parking lot and found a parking space near the door. She turned off the motor, unbuckled the seat belt, and headed inside to order the pizza. She ordered three large pepperoni with extra cheese and one large veggie pizza in case Agent Fowler wanted to eat as well and didn't want pepperoni with extra cheese.

After the pizza's were ready, she paid for them and carried them out to Elita. She set them down in the backseat, climbed into the driver's seat, buckled up, started the engine and headed back to the Autobot base. She arrived not too long later with all the items.

The children helped unload Elita and set it up in an area out of the way of the moving bots. June poured the drinks for each of them as well as herself and Agent Fowler. They each grabbed two slices of pizza, two napkins and their drink. Then they sat down on the sofa they had there to eat, drink and watch television. "Thank you again, Elita-One," June replied with a smile.

Elita transformed back into bot mode. "You're very welcome, June," she smiled, then headed off to find her mate.

First Aid woke out of recharge and headed over to Ratchet. "Ratchet, you should get your recharge now. You've been working non-stop. You'll be working harder the next few solar cycles, so you should get all the recharge you can get now. I can take care of things as well as check on our patients while both you and Medic Red Alert recharge."

Ratchet turned to look at his CMO-in-training. "Alright..." he told him. He bid good night to the humans and headed off to the quarters he shared with his mate. He entered their quarters, closed the door and joined his mate in their berth. He wrapped his arm around her keeping her close to him, then quickly fell into recharge. He hadn't realized how tired he actually was until that very moment.

**~Two Earth Days later~ **

Agent Fowler appeared at Autobot Outpost Omega One with the trailer he promised to bring by for Prime. Today was the day that both Optimus, Agent Fowler and a few chosen soldiers from NEST were going to transport June, the children and their families along with items that couldn't be replaced to the city outside of Autobot City.

The chosen soldiers from NEST had arrived the day before with Prime's real trailer and two other Autobots who would not transform in front of the June and the others; Hoist and Ironhide. Hoist had towed Prime's trailer - which could transform into a battle trailer - all the way to Jasper, Nevada with one of the soldiers in the driver's seat and Ironhide had one of the soldiers with him - Colonel William Lennox. There were three other normal military vehicles each with a driver that joined them.

Lennox climbed up the ladder to the platform to talk to Optimus. "Hello, Optimus Prime, Sir. It's been far too long," he told him, "I was a bit surprised when you sent a message to me after all this time to assist you in bringing more allies to be protected."

"Colonel Lennox, it has been too long," Prime replied, "The Decepticons know of our allies. Agent Fowler will not be moving with them. June Darby and the children are the only ones who know of us. Raf's family and Miko's host parents do not. I would prefer to keep it that way. The others who are being protected by us must remember not to mention it. Raf's family has had to be relocated once because the Decepticons tracked him down."

Lennox nodded. "I understand, Sir. We will keep to your orders. We must take your allies here to each of the homes so that way we can load the trailer before it gets dark and head on out. It will be at least a day to get back as well as unloading and helping them move their things into their new homes. One more thing, Lieutenant Caitlin Williams told me that she will assign two Marines each to your allies here. They will take them around to purchase items that they couldn't bring with them as well as food."

Prime was impressed. "Lieutenant Williams? I didn't think she was going to follow in her parents' footsteps. The last I heard from her, she was going to do something in the medical field."

Lennox smiled. "She did...The title of Lieutenant was given to her based on the military training she had received growing up. She is more your liaison now more than any other human here and those you have been in contact with before. She and her parents have already helped to set up everything in Autobot City. General David Williams will meet you and the others at the City gates when you arrive, but Lieutenant Williams and her mother Brigadier-General Lora Williams will be waiting for you in the city outside the City to show you which houses belong to your allies here."

"Understood..." Prime replied, "June...Children...We must get moving. I hope you have everything packed and ready to be loaded. I will have to come back here with Agent Fowler to pick up my trailer and Streetwise."

June said, "Everything that's important at our house has been packed Optimus and ready to be loaded."

Miko nodded. "Everything is ready at host parents' house too."

"Same for my family," Raf told him.

Agent Fowler smiled. "We'll stop at the Darby's place first and load them in. Raf's family will be last so we can unload them first when we arrive at our destination."

Colonel Lennox, June and the children loaded up into one of the military vehicles. They left down the tunnel of the base first. Prime transformed into his truck mode while the remaining soldiers helped to connect the trailer. Once that was done, Agent Fowler climbed into the driver's seat of Prime's alt-mode and they followed behind Lennox. The other soldiers climbed into their vehicles and followed out as well.

First Aid opened the door of the base to allow them all to leave. After the last of the vehicles had left the base, he closed the door and went to check on Streetwise first.

Ironhide and Hoist transformed into bot mode after the humans were gone and assisted the others in packing their things.

Mera darted around the workers, her curiousity both amusing and annoying. A few times she would fly up and sit on a box that needed to be loaded into the trailer and the bot would tell her off gently. However, one time she flew up and sat on a box that Ironhide was going to pick up. She gave him an innocent kitten look.

"Mera, Ah need ta load this box onta that trailer..." he told her, "Ah can't do it with ya sittin' there."

Mera pouted but didn't say anything yet.

Ironhide sighed. "That look may work wit' Flareup, but it ain't gonna work wit' ya," he chided her, "We hafta git ev'rythin' packed up an' moved outta 'ere. Ah know yer bored, but we 'ave a deadline."

Mera whined. "Awwww...Will ya play with me after we move everyone home?"

Ironhide nodded. "Ah guess Ah could do that..." he told her.

Mera giggled. "YAY!" She flew up, sat down on Ironhide's shoulder and nuzzled his cheek-plate.

From then on, Ironhide was able to continue working, with Mera on his shoulder - which he didn't mind at all.

**~New Base of Operations/Home~**

It had been two weeks since Optimus and the other Autobots had arrived in Autobot City. The bots had fallen into what humans would call 'second nature'.

Ratchet, Medic Red Alert and First Aid were checking things over in the medical bay, when Caitlin entered.

"I hope everything has been set up the way you like it," she told them, her Welsh accent very noticeable. She smiled as she headed over towards Ratchet.

Ratchet turned and looked down. He set his servo down on the ground for her to climb into it. "Yes, it is. Thank you, Cat.." he told her. Only her parents and very close friends could call her by that nickname.

Caitlin climbed gently into his palm and sat down. "I'm very glad. I wanted it to look just right for you. I didn't want anyone else working on the medical bay."

Ratchet gently lifted her up and then moved his servo slightly so she could stand on the table in front of him next to his computer.

"I really missed you, Ratchet..." Caitlin told him, then looked at the computer screen. She saw the writing in the form of a list. She looked at him confused. "What is that?" she indicated to the screen.

If bots could show embarrassment, Ratchet's face-plates would be a crimson red by now. "It's just a list, Cat. I've been crossing off each item as they were completed. Which brings me to number seven."

He located the next one on the list: 7. Continue to cuss at Earth Tech calling it obsolete. Next to that item, he typed completed, but added a side note to it: Also we left Jasper and moved to Autobot City.

Ratchet smiled after he did that. He saved the document and closed it out. He then turned to Caitlin and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on things with her while Medic Red Alert and First Aid continued setting up their special work areas.

_Please read and review. Thank you! I know I forgot to put this at the end of my other chapters._

Next: _Can Ratchet's mate convince him to take a vacation? Let's find out!_


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: This chapter was pretty much written, until my online friend Smokeykit suggested that I add in details for certain parts - which you will see when you read it. In a way I feel like Ratchet. Instead of 'Repairs, repairs, repairs', it was actually 'Details, details, details'. hehe...**

**I thought it would be a little weird if Ratchet went down the road as an ambulance when he was off-duty. My online friend Smokeykit suggested that I give him the vehicle mode that he is in the live-action movies, so that will be his non-emergency vehicle. My online friend Smokeykit also helped me with the start of this chapter. Remember: City is Autobot City and city is the human city outside of Autobot City. **

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro. I'm just having fun with them. I do not own the CSI characters. CSI is Created by Anthony E. Zuiker and no copywrite infringement is intended for any and all CSI characters used in this fanfic story. I meant to say before: Mera and her siblings belong to my friend Smokeykit. Caitlin Williams belongs to me.

It was morning - early morning, when a shadow appeared in the room. The sun was just starting to peek over the Eastern horizon when she snuck into the room and up to the berth where two bots laid resting. For a moment she sat on her hutches, wings against her side. Then she exploded into motion and landed besides the mech, a paw batting at his shoulder.

"Wake up! It's time to get up! You promised to take me to the lake today!" Mera's voice rose quickly. "Come on, wake up, Unca Ratchy! Wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup!" her paws beating their own tempo on the metal.

Ratchet woke with a groan at being attacked. "It's too fragging early! Go back to bed..." He rolled over and hid against his sparkmate, unintentionally sending Mera off the berth to the floor.

Shaking herself, she took to the air and landed on him fully this time, paws once again beating out a tempo to her words.

"Wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup! You promised!" she hissed; more in excitement than anything else.

Red Alert didn't feel like bringing her optics online yet. She wanted to recharge a bit longer since they had moved to Autobot City the day before. "Ratchet - did you make such a promise to the young cub? If you did, I suggest you get up and take her."

"I didn't make it, she dragged it out of me!" he groaned.

"Wakeup! We're gonna miss the sunrise!" Mera bounced around, then sank her claws into his outer armor and tugged that way since he didn't have a handy 'ear' like her dad did to tug on.

Ratchet yelped and rolled, sending Mera crashing to the floor as he sat up on the berth to look at the claw marks that leaked energon, and sighed heavily. "How does Tigatron put up with her?" he grumbled.

Mera looked up at him and started to wail.

Grumbling under his breath, such as that was, he reached down, picked up the cubling and cradled her in his arms as he headed for the medical bay that their rooms were off off.

Red Alert giggled at the way Mera was with Ratchet. She on-lined her optics and sat up, glaring in Ratchet's direction. She slipped off the berth and followed him out of their room. "Ratchet - she's a child. She's a ball of energy. I actually helped Rhinox when Airazor was in labor. You haven't been around Cybertronian children in a long time - and no, Bumblebee doesn't count. That's why you're short-tempered with the human children at times. You'd better start having experience with them. Tigatron loves his daughter. Your wounds from her are not that bad. I'll patch you up after you come back in. Entertain her with the sunrise. It's not every day you get to see the sunrise with your uncle."

Ratchet grumbled as he headed outside and transformed into his ambulance mode with Mera inside. His wounds showed on the outside armor though as he drove off away from the City and out into the fields...

After sunrise - about two hours after it was up - Ratchet came back to Autobot City. His arrival and the sight of the wounds instantly got noticed, making him grumble even more. Mera was sound asleep inside though and didn't pay any attention to the other bots.

Tigatron was waiting in the corridor for Ratchet to return with his daughter Mera. He had known that Mera was with Ratchet so that wasn't why he was waiting for them to return. As a parent, he knew that his little flying furball would be tuckered out by the time she came back because of the Primus-awful time she woke up.

Ratchet opened up his passenger door. "Tigatron, Mera's asleep on my passenger seat. You might want to take her back to your quarters," he told him.

Tigatron gently lifted Mera into his arms. "Thank you for taking her, Ratchet." He left carrying her back to the quarters he shared with his family.

Ratchet closed his passenger door, stayed in vehicle mode and grumbled all the way to the Medical Bay so his mate could repair him. He drove through the open doors of the Medical Bay.

Red Alert looked up and saw that her mate had returned. "I'm glad to see you didn't do something foolish as transforming and walking in here."

"I'm an injured bot, don't chide me like I'm a sparkling," Ratchet grumbled, "You said you were going to repair me when I returned."

"I did and I intend to." She smirked at him and then called to her companions. "First Aid, Rhinox. I'll need your help for a few moments."

Rhinox and First Aid came over and waited for further instructions.

"I'm going to have to manually transform Ratchet," she told them, "Once I do that, I will need both of you to lift him up on the medical berth so I can repair his injuries."

"Yes, Red Alert," they both replied in unison.

Red Alert knelt down, located the manual release and pulled it.

As soon as Ratchet transformed, both First Aid and Rhinox caught Ratchet before he crumbled to the floor and helped him up onto the berth gently. Then they moved away to go back to what they were doing.

Red Alert started to work on the injuries Ratchet had sustained that morning by an eager little flying furball. She wished she hadn't waited so long to do so. The injuries were now a bit wider. She also checked his energon levels to make sure they weren't too low. She activated a welder from her apparatus attachment on her left servo and started to patch up his wounds. Once that was complete, she activated a buffer from the same apparatus. She held a cloth in her right servo, and wiped away anything that was left on his armor plating after the buffering. She completed the whole task and told him to rest while she finished up her shift.

**~Two days later~**

Ratchet was getting tired. He felt a lot of pressure from the other bots who always needed to be repaired. Even though he had help to lighten the load, it wasn't enough. It still felt like he had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. He also had to chase after a few young bots who decided it would be fun to take Tigatron and Airazor's flying furballs outside without permission. Needless to say, none of the elder bots nor few humans that lived inside the City were very happy about that.

Red Alert had noticed her mate looking very ragged lately. She was very worried, so she had asked Optimus Prime in private if it would be alright if she and Ratchet were able to take a vacation. She assured Prime that First Aid was more than capable to handle things, since he had already done it once before. She also explained that he had the Search and Rescue bots along with the Protectobots to help him as they knew how to do basic repairs.

Optimus had approved and given them both permission to take a vacation as long as they checked in when they could. Red Alert nodded that she would and headed back to tell Ratchet.

Ratchet was a bit skeptical at first, but knew that First Aid had handled things before when they had the day off, even though they had bailed him out by helping him when he felt overwhelmed. This time there were more to help him out and he agreed to take the vacation.

**~Vacation Day~**

Ratchet gave First Aid last minute instructions, then joined his mate who was waiting outside for him in her non-medical alt mode - a Volkswagen Jetta Sportswagen. Ratchet transformed into a Search and Rescue Hummer. After one final check of everything, they drove off side-by-side down the road.

It was getting late, so they decided they needed a place to rest for the night. They hadn't yet transformed. This was the private time they had been longing for. The one night they had for their anniversary was wonderful, but this was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Ratchet had chosen a secluded area, checked to make sure there were no humans in the area, and transformed into bot mode. No one would even notice a giant robot in a forested area, let alone two. Ratchet started to make the area look a bit better than it was when they arrived by clearing away branches and little stones that could impact in their pedes. If that happened, then they wouldn't be able to get away quickly even by transforming into their vehicular modes if they had to.

Red Alert transformed into her bot mode and watched Ratchet, a hint of a smile on her facial-plating. She shook her helm as he worked to make their stay there as comfortable as possible.

"Ratchet, the purpose of a vacation is to relax..." she replied gently, "Please sit down and relax already. You've been clearing the space for twenty Earth minutes. Besides, we're only going to be here for the night. The area looks fine."

Ratchet vented a very heavy sigh. He knew that she was right, he just wanted the area to be clear enough so they could rest as comfortably as they could. He sat down and made himself a little comfortable. He knew it would be even more comfortable when his mate joined him.

Red Alert walked over to where Ratchet was resting and sat down leaning against him. She rested her helm against his shoulder and released a small puff of exhaust. "This is nice, Ratchet. We were finally able to get away just to have time alone. We don't have that luxury any other time. It's always repairs, repairs, repairs."

Ratchet chuckled. "Don't I know it! I want to know where the bots go to get that many injuries on a daily basis." He moved slightly to wrap his arm around her and keep her close to him.

Red Alert looked up at the darkening sky as she rested against him. She watched as the stars started to dot the midnight black sky. She smiled when the first star appeared. She made a wish, which was something that she knew you were supposed to do. She tilted her helm up to look at Ratchet and gave him a smile.

Ratchet smiled back at her. "You're the one who asked Prime to give us time off to go on a vacation, so where exactly shall we go?"

Red Alert gave him a soft giggle. "Anywhere our sparks desire," she told him, "Also, we haven't been alone since our Anniversary. Even on that day, we really didn't have time alone because we had to bail First Aid out due to all those injured bots."

"Don't remind me," Ratchet grumbled, "I'm sorry our day was ruined then. I had everything planned and Optimus said that he would make sure we weren't disturbed."

"Ratchet, my love, I told you before. I don't think they went out deliberately to get injured," Red Alert replied softly, "I don't want to talk about that day anymore. It's in the past. We have the next one to look forward to."

After talking awhile longer, they both fell into a recharge in their bot forms. After recharging for the night, their internal chronometers stirred them out of recharge just before the early morning twilight.

Red Alert onlined her pale blue optics and moved from her position next to Ratchet. She stood up and worked out the kinks in her joints. She turned to look at Ratchet still in recharge, however, she hoped he wouldn't stay in recharge too much longer. She wanted him to greet the sun with her as well as consume their morning energon before heading out further on their vacation.

Ratchet stirred not too long later and the sun was still below the horizon. There was plenty of time to join his mate. He onlined his optics and moved into a sitting position. After he focused his optics, they locked onto the dazzling pale blue optics of his beautiful mate. He thanked Primus every day for bringing her into his life a long time ago. Every time he looked at her, his spark would skip a beat.

Red Alert had two cubes of energon in her right servo and was making her way over to him. She offered him one of the cubes with a smile on her lip-plates. "Good morning, Ratchet," she greeted him, "After we consume our energon, we can watch the sun come up, then continue on our way." She sat back down next to him, and slowly consumed her energon.

"Good morning, Red," he rumbled back lovingly with a smile, slowly consuming the proffered cube, "Did you recharge well?"

"Yes, I did..." she replied, "I always recharge well when I'm with you."

They both finished their cubes of energon and stored them in subspace. Ratchet moved to a standing position, then offered his servo to help her stand up. Red Alert gave him her servo and stood up with his help. He wrapped his arm around her and together they walked to the spot they were going to watch the sun rise. After they greeted the sun, they made sure the area was void of their presence, transformed into their vehicle modes and headed off to their first destination.

Ratchet input the coordinates of their first destination - Sydney, Australia. A ground bridge activated and they drove right through it. When they arrived in Sydney, they decided to start their vacation touring. Since they didn't have to stay in hotels like humans, they could tour for hours and then find a place to hide themselves away for the night. They also knew they had to be careful and consume oil when they needed it.

They went everywhere in Sydney - well, wherever they could actually go as vehicles or bots - then took a drive towards Bondi Beach. When they arrived at Bondi Beach, they were trying to make a decision of whether or not to transform into bot mode or stay in their vehicle forms and activate their holoforms. The opted to stay in vehicle form while watching the water and human children playing around on the beach. They didn't do anything more than observe their surroundings while relaxing. They communicated over private link, but the majority of the time they stayed silent.

After enjoying the rest of the day at the beach, they found a place to hide away for the night. They realized that the ceiling of the hideaway was high enough that they could transform and rest in their bot forms - which they did so. As they sat down on the floor of the cave, they consumed a can of oil each and talked quietly about what they should do next on their vacation. While they were sightseeing earlier that day, they had heard the humans talking about Ayers Rock. That had intrigued them. They were very interested in geology and culture as well as medicine, so they had made the decision to visit Ayers Rock. They found out the cost of the admission to the park where it was located as well.

Ratchet sent a communique to Caitlin back in Autobot City and asked her to pay for the admission to the park in Australian funds for them. He told her that they would be there in about two days. Caitlin sent back that she would make sure they had everything they needed by the time they arrived at their destination.

On the morning they arrived at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Ratchet's holoform told the ranger at the entrance of the park that both he and his wife paid in advance and the only reason they were in two separate vehicles was in case there was an emergency.

The ranger gave them each their three day pass and told them to enjoy their stay. As they drove along further into the park talking to each other over private communication, they took in the sights around them. It was true that it was mostly open space and just a giant mound in the middle of one area, but there were still things to look at.

When they finally arrived at Ayers Rock, both Ratchet and Red Alert had their holoforms step out of the driver's side of their vehicles and locked them up. Ratchet's holoform was a middle-aged looking man who was starting to get a bit of gray hair (mainly due to stress). His build was tall and semi-muscular. He wore a corduroy blazer and black dress pants. He also wore wire-rimmed glasses. Red Alert's holoform was a woman who hadn't yet reached middle-age. She was also semi-tall and still filled out in the right places. She had red hair in a bob hairstyle. She wore a light blue blouse and dark blue jeans for this location. They both wore hats to keep the sun from beating down on them and looked like normal tourists, but they were going to do things like geologists and archaeologists without taking physical samples of the sacred landmark.

They walked around the base of the rock very slowly, wondering exactly how the rock was formed. They knew it wasn't man-made. It couldn't be to have petroglyphs etched in certain parts of the rock, let alone the sheer size of it could only be formed naturally. The area around it - springs, waterholes and rock caves - were also formed naturally. The only thing they could tell that couldn't have been naturally made were the ancient paintings. The base of the sacred landmark had different types of fauna and flora surrounding it. Trees and bushes seemed to thrive there and be unique to the area.

They also saw the animals that seemed to thrive in that area as well - which was surprising to them. They saw a few human tourists climbing the rock, but they didn't want to disturb the sacredness of the rock. They continued their survey of the land around Ayers Rock also called Uluru a while longer, headed back to their vehicles and continued on down the road to see Kata Tjuta which was second major feature of the National Park they had access to. Since they had a three day pass, they decided to see the layout of both today, then take in one feature at a time over the next two days before leaving Australia and moving onto their next destination.

When they had their fill of Australia as well as enjoyed every moment of it, they talked about where they would like to go next and decided on Cairo, Egypt. Ratchet input the coordinates of where the ground bridge was to open up there, and they drove right through the glowing green energy of the ground bridge.

Since it was nighttime the day before - because of time zone differences - they sought shelter nearby to stay out of the cool night air. The Sahara Desert drops below freezing at night and even though they are mechanical beings used to certain temperatures, they weren't crazy enough to brave the elements.

When they woke up the next day, they set off in the very early morning towards the Valley of the Kings. After they arrived they parked their vehicles and activated their holoforms. Ratchet and Red Alert walked around looking at the different excavations going on with different groups. The leader of one group offered them to join them in at least one excavation site as well as look at the artifacts already uncovered. They had a great time doing what was offered to them, thanked the leader and headed back to Cairo to see the pyramids and the Sphinx.

It was just after lunchtime when they arrived back in Cairo and decided to go to the shelter they stayed in the previous night to consume some oil before doing anything more. They entered the shelter, closed it up so no one could see inside, quickly transformed into their bot modes and consumed some oil as a late lunch.

Half an hour later, Ratchet opened the shelter once more. They both transformed into their vehicle modes and left the shelter heading towards the Sphinx first. When they arrived, they activated their holoforms, climbed out of their vehicles and found out that there was a tour group going inside the Sphinx - which they joined. By sheer luck, that same tour group was going to tour the inside of the pyramids as well.

Two hours later when the tour was over, they went back to their shelter and had some energon. Close to dusk, they decided they should watch the sunset and the stars come out, so they left their shelter in vehicle form and headed to the perfect spot for the night viewing. A meteor shower was scheduled for that evening as well, so they watched that as well before heading back to the shelter for the night.

After they had a great time in Egypt, Ratchet input their final destination - Las Vegas, Nevada. The ground bridge activated and they drove right through it. When they reappeared on the other side, they were on The Strip. They drove along it as they tried to decide what to do while there.

It was almost nighttime when they arrived - because of the timezone difference - so they decided to seek out a shelter for the night. They drove into the desert and found a cave in which to hideaway in for the night.

When they were well rested and awoke the next morning, they consumed their morning energon and headed out into the city of Las Vegas. They finally settled on visiting their friends at the Las Vegas Crime Lab since they helped on a case a long while back and wanted to see how they were doing.

Ratchet had sent an email the night before to Gil Grissom at the Las Vegas Crime Lab notifying him that both he and Medic Red Alert were in the area and that they would like to stop by. They would like to see everyone that they worked closely with back then. Ratchet checked his internal computer and found out that Gil had indeed sent back telling him that they would love to.

They drove in comfortable silence and arrived at the Crime Lab to see a few of their friends standing outside talking. They pulled into the parking lot and parked in a secluded area of the lot. Ratchet sent a text message to Gris' cell phone telling him they had arrived and are parked behind the building.

Two nights before they left their final destination to go back to Autobot City, they went back to the empty cave where they had spent previous nights in. They covered up the entrance and started to get intimate. Their sparks merged together creating a colorful array, and stayed merged for a long time. When they finally pulled apart from the intimacy, they decided to stay there in the cave until their overheated engines cooled down. Their fans kicked on to help cool themselves down._

Three days after they had returned from their vacation, Ratchet was fully relaxed, but Medic Red Alert was acting a little distant. She would go off into her own little world, even when she was asked a medical opinion. It was like she wasn't hearing anything.

Later that day, when the Medical Bay was void of patients and other medical personnel, she sat down and decided to scan her systems. She thought she might have come down with a virus or something. What she had found was even more startling! Now all she had to do was figure out a way to give the news to her mate.

Ratchet had realized that he had forgotten to knock off the next item on his list, so he headed to the Medical Bay to take care of that right away. As he entered, he saw his mate just sitting there. "Red, what's wrong Sweetspark?" he asked concerned walking over to her.

Red Alert turned to face him. Her faceplate was totally illuminated, her pale blue optics were very bright and she had a bright smile. "I have news for you Ratchet...I think you'd better sit down before I tell you," she told him. She stood up from where she had been sitting and indicated to stool.

Ratchet did as she instructed and looked at her. He wasn't really worried about the news, because his mate was glowing and he could feel her spark sending gentle pulses to his. He took her right servo in his and held it.

Red Alert cycled some air and then said, "Ratchet, I found out the reason I have been a little distant since we came back from our vacation...I'm sparked! We're going to have a little sparkling..."

If Ratchet's optics could pop out of their sockets, they would have at the news. After a few moments of stunned silence, he spoke again. "Really - We're going to have a little one?" he questioned.

Red Alert nodded her helm and squeezed the servo that was holding hers, then moved it to where the little sparkling was nesting inside her.

Ratchet was so elated, he brought her closer to him, gently moved her to a sitting position on his lap and pressed his lip-plates to hers. A few sparks between their lip-plates were exchanged. His engine hummed while hers purred. After a few moments, they pulled apart.

"You are going to need rest and follow every one of my instructions," he told her becoming her primary physician, "We will also have to notify Prime, Elita and Prowl as soon as possible so we can put you on a less hectic schedule. It has been a long while since we've had an Autobot sparkling. The last one created was Flareup, and then of course we have the three Maximal cublings."

Medic Red Alert giggled. "Yes Doctor - I'll do whatever you say." She got up and said, "We can tell Prime, Elita and Prowl tomorrow first thing. I'm going to go to our quarters and get some nourishment and then rest." She smiled at him again and left the Medical Bay.

Ratchet had such a big smile on his lip-plates as he turned his chair towards his computer. He brought up his list and looked for the next item: 8. Take a long needed vacation with my beautiful mate. Next to the item he typed 'completed' and then added a side note to it - Found out I'm going to be a Sire!

He saved the updated document, closed it out, and logged out of his stuff on the computer. He stood up and headed out of the Medical Bay whistling a very happy tune.

_Please read and review. Thank you! _

_Next: Ratchet wants to spend more time with his family, but in order to do so, he has to pass the torch... _


End file.
